Help using 'dpkg' command to install debian packages

[Dallas Clement]

On Fri, 2007-07-13 at 08:23 +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 08:49:26AM -0500, Dallas Clement wrote:
> > Here is my scenario:
> > 
> > I built a binary libc6-i386.deb package on my Debian host and installed
> > it on another host which has nothing but a bare Linux 2.6.21.1 kernel
> > and a static busybox 1.6.0 installed. I used the busybox 'dpkg' command
> > to install the package. Everything went fine and the output of the 'dpkg
> > -l' command is:
> 
> [...]
> 
> > When I try to install this package, it fails during the installation.
> > This is the error I get:
> > 
> > dpkg: package busybox depends on libc6-i386, which is not installed or
> > flagged to be installed
> > 
> > 
> > I cannot understand why I am getting this error, when clearly the
> > libc6-i386 package is installed as you can see from the previous 'dpkg
> > -l' output.
> [...]
> 
> > Clearly, the libc6-i386 package is installed.
> > 
> > Is there anything else that 'dpkg' checks other than this 'status' file
> > to do the dependency check? Is it just a simple package name check, or
> > is there more involved?
> > 
> > Any insight you could provide will be greatly appreciated!  I'm at my
> > wit's end trying to get this to work.
> 
> It looks like you are doing the right thing to me, ie if you were using
> the real dpkg I believe it would work. Perhaps busybox's emulation is
> buggy.
> 
> Hamish

I have confirmed that the busybox 'dpkg' command is indeed buggy.  It is
not checking dependencies correctly.  I wasn't able to pinpoint the
exact location in the source code for the problem I reported earlier.
The code is not exactly easy reading.  

I download the real dpkg source, built it and am using it instead.  It
works perfectly.